Naidu said, “Government is already in the process of accelerating reforms and transforming India. A number of crucial Bills including that for introduction of GST, raising FDI limit in insurance and enhancing employment generation (through amendments in Factories Act and Apprentices Act) are expected to be taken up for approval in the next session of Parliament.”

He further added that these bills are important from the perspective of spurring growth and employment, which is necessary for faster poverty reduction, he added.

“We have given time till December 15 this year to urban local bodies to submit their city level Smart City Plans. These plans will be evaluated in the second stage of City Challenge Competition for picking up the first batch of 20 cities based on rankings for financing during this financial year. We would like to announce these 20 selected cities based on merit alone in January and release funds.”

The task of building smart cities is no doubt challenging but can be achieved if all stakeholders rise to the occasion with innovative thinking, planning and execution,” he said and added that next year 40 cities would be selected on the similar lines, followed by another 40 cities in the subsequent year.

Talking on the smart city mission, Naidu stated, “The Smart City Mission has generated as much interest abroad as in our country. Global companies from a large number of foreign countries have participated in the bidding process for selection of these consultants.

Companies from 14 countries including the US, Canada, United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Norway, Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Africa and Abu Dhabi have been selected for preparation of city level Smart City Plans for 42 Mission cities.”

In his keynote address Dr. Subhash Chandra, Chairman, Essel Group & Zee Network, said that smart cities were run on smart technologies and needed smart people to run these operations. He added that the Government of India was providing a corpus of Rs. 1000 crore to Smart Cities but there was a need to raise funds from other sources.

Dr. Chandra added that electricity was one of the main drivers of a smart city and there was a need to reduce loss of power in distribution which today stands at 30 per cent. Hence, power distribution sector needs to undergo a reform.

In the vote of thanks, N S N Murty, Director and Leader, Smart Cities, PwC India, said that PWC and FICCI was working on a document which in detail discusses frugal solutions that could be employed for creating smart cities. For social inclusiveness, it was imperative that besides advanced technology, frugal solutions are put in practice as this is a citizen driven programme. (ANI)